Department of Transportation

KONA – The Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole will serve as the staging area for the Triennial Aircraft Disaster Exercise Thursday, November 16, 2017. The emergency response exercise is a mandatory certification requirement by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which tests airfield disaster preparedness and response by simulating a full-scale aircraft emergency disaster. The exercise tests and evaluates the operational capacity of emergency response in a stress environment.

The multi-agency exercise, from 8:00 a.m. to noon, utilizes student and teacher volunteers from the West Hawaii Explorations Academy (WHEA) who act as injured passengers. Participating agencies include HDOT Airports Division staff, HDOT Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) units, Securitas, FAA, Transportation Security Administration, Hawaii County Civil Defense, Hawaii County Fire and Police Departments, Emergency Medical Services, Kona Community Hospital, American Red Cross, University of the Nations Kona Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), American Medical Response, U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii Air National Guard 154th Wing, United Airlines and other airline personnel.

Flight operations will continue as normal during the exercise with no impact to scheduled flights.

HDOT alerts the public there will be realistic scenarios portraying injured people on the airport property and may include fire, fire suppression, rescue, triage, treatment and transportation using emergency response vehicles. We alert the public this is a drill and not a real life emergency.

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